Fairy Dingles
by Poison'd
Summary: Take a few strawberries dip them in chocolate and seperate on a stick with whipped cream. A short, sweet moment shared by Rin and Ian as they sat in the park ages ago. Ian x Rin.


So this is my first Fairy Cube story. I wanted to do this after trying this little dessert thing at the Fourth of July celebration this year. It was really quite a treat, so I hope this story matches up to that definition.

Anyways, I feel the ending may have been somewhat predictable, but I wasn't sure how to end it. I feel it's appropriate to the feel of Fairy Cube, but it just doesn't have any sparkle or shine to it. So really this story is not my best… I hope you enjoy it anyways though. And I would love feedback telling me where I need to improve with writing a scene with children (man, was _that_ difficult for me...!). Thanks in advance.

Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Cube, because I cannot speak Japanese and, thus, am not the mangaka, Kaori Yuki. I also do not own the Fairy Dingle treat, except the one I ate— after all, I'm sure my mom won't claim to own what has already been eaten no matter if she spent money on it or not.

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****Fairy Dingles**

"I ate some on the way here. I hope you don't mind." Rin indicated the bag held tightly in her hand as she appeared over the hill.

Ian looked up from the edge of the blanket where he had been sitting, drawing pictures in the ground. He stood up and brushed his hands on his long, blue shorts as he began to walk towards his companion. Remembering his drawing suddenly, Ian turned around and hurriedly rubbed his foot over the heart he'd been making.

"Did you wash the strawberries?" he called to her as he quickly checked the pot of chocolate he had brought. It looked like it had melted a bit since he'd first arrived and he had the sun to thank for that. He stirred the contents with the stick he had picked to use as a makeshift spoon and then got up to go greet Rin.

"Yeah," she nodded, "I washed them. I remember you telling me that the fairies like to munch on dirty berries. So, to avoid eating them, I washed them. Plus, I heard from teacher that it's healthy too."

"Healthy?" Ian fell in line with her as she walked by.

"Uh-huh. She said healthy was… was…" Rin pondered what her teacher had said the meaning of that word was, but couldn't quite place it. "Well, it's healthy and it sounded like a good thing."

Ian returned a smile. He took the bag of somewhat beaten strawberries from her and hoisted them up over his shoulder. "I brought the stuff. The chocolate and the whipped cream and I also found two sticks— just like you said. Hey, Rin, why do we need this stuff anyways?"

"It's a surprise." Rin winked at Ian, holding up her finger for emphasis on 'surprise'. He smiled back at her, but curiosity was eating away at him. They reached the blanket and Ian went to take a seat next to the pot of chocolate while Rin stopped to stare at the ground. "Ian, what's this in the ground?"

"What's what?" Ian asked, stirring the chocolate and trying to break off pieces of it to make the sweet treat easier to melt.

"This drawing in the dirt—" she pointed at it.

"I-It's nothing!" Ian shouted a bit louder than he meant too. He rushed over to the patch of dirt and stamped out the rest of his drawing.

"It looked like a heart though…" Rin commented, more to herself.

"A heart? No," Ian dragged out his 'o' for dramatic effect, waving his hand at her to dismiss the idea, "it was a… a circle! Yeah, I was practicing my circles."

He smiled at her and walked off back to the pot of chocolate to try and find the whipped cream can he knew was around somewhere. Rin smiled sadly down where the drawing had been, but she blew off the feeling and joined Ian.

"I see the chocolate isn't ready yet. Did you leave it out like I told you?" Rin leaned in close enough for her to see Ian's face more clearly.

Turning his head suddenly, the two came nose to nose and both pulled away in shock. Ian laughed loudly, "Sorry, Rin. I didn't realize you were that close!"

"It's fine." Rin promised, embarrassed that her crush had just Eskimo-kissed her. She shook her head, _Ian was no Eskimo, and so there should be no problem with them being nose to nose!_ "So, did you?"

"What? Oh, yeah!" Ian grinned over his shoulder at her. "I've been here since twelve in the morning."

"Morning!? Ian, something bad could've happened to you!" Rin yelled at him in alarm. She stood up quickly, huffing and flushed as concern racking her whole body.

"Oh, oops!" Ian ruffled his hair and smiled sheepishly, "Did I say morning? I meant afternoon."

Rin considerably relaxed. She sighed relieved and sat back down next to him in embarrassment, "I'm sorry for getting mad—"

"It's okay. I would've been worried about it too."

"About yourself?" She cocked an eyebrow at her brunette friend.

Ian chuckled, "No, no. I would've been concerned if it had been you out at twelve in the… was it morning or afternoon?"

"Oh, Ian!" Rin scowled at him, "You're so bad with time!"

"One can only try so much." He shrugged. _Where had that whipped cream gone off too?_

"Yeah, staying awake in class would be a good start." She jabbed him in the back of the head. "Ian, what are you looking for?"

Ian looked at her reluctantly. He didn't want her to think he was lying to her about bringing it when he had double-checked the presence of everything in his rucksack. "The whipped cream… I know I brought it."

"It's fine, Ian. We can just go get—"

"Found it!" he cried excitedly, as his foot made contact with an aluminum canister behind him. He picked it up and grinned at her.

"Well, let's try to make the best of the melted chocolate we have."

"Did you know you can't cook chocolate?" Ian asked her, pulling the strawberry bag over to the two. "I tried it this morning. I lost a good number of chocolate chips to the microwave."

"Your dad didn't get angry?" Rin asked, remembering the speckled man who seemed to look on with a stern face.

"Uh… he doesn't know yet…" Ian admitted, placing the food items and utensils neatly before Rin and himself. "Okay. So what do we do?"

Rin picked up the strawberries and dumped the bag into the melted chocolate pile. Ian shouted in alarm and looked at Rin as if she had just grown another head. She turned and smiled, "Don't worry. We need them to be covered in the chocolate."

Ian nodded slowly in understanding, "Oh! My dad went to this friend's concert one time and there were chocolate strawberries on a silver platter. I liked them."

She popped his hand away from the pot of floating, chocolate strawberries. "Not yet, Ian! We're going to go fishing."

"Fishing?" Ian felt confused again. Turning his head around this way and that, he could hardly spot a body of water close enough for them to fish in. He was starting to wonder if it was possible or not to fish in a water fountain.

"Yeah," Rin looked overjoyed as she held her stick loosely above the chocolate pot, "We dive in the pot for them and spear them." She thrust her stick within the messy, brown goo and came up with a 

strawberry. Pulling it off, she repositioned it on the stick so that the round bottom pointed down to the earth.

"Okay!" Ian eagerly stabbed at a strawberry and came up with a chunk of chocolate. The two laughed in harmony at his mistake and he pulled it off the stick. He held it out gingerly in front of her lips and she took it in between her teeth. He watched her chew it slowly.

"Wow!" she swallowed, "This is the best chocolate I have ever tried!"

"Didn't I tell you?" Ian managed to correctly spear a strawberry and was now busy repositioning it himself, "I usually leave those bars out for the winter fairies when I have enough allowance money to buy some."

"And you saved up your allowance to buy me some?" She looked touched with tears. She leaned forward and threw her arms around his neck. Planting a kiss upon his cheek she pulled away happily to pluck herself another strawberry from brown depths.

Ian touched his cheek and stared at her as a red tint marred his face, "I-It's nothing really. They're not expensive." He was lying and he knew it. That chocolate cost him a good four dollars and he only made a quarter for taking trash out…

He stared at the setting sun and wondered how much longer he had until it was time to go. His father himself had told him that he was working late at the school that day. And Ian knew he could be home any time from around eight to eleven. The sun set at about nine and it was already on its decent. He didn't mind being caught out here, but he knew his father would be upset by it and he didn't really like the way his dad looked at Rin.

He placed his hand down on the blanket with a sigh, having already finished catching his strawberries. Instead of feeling the soft fabric beneath his palms as he thought he would, his hand connected with flesh. For an instance, their eyes met and both turned away embarrassed as Ian muttered an apology.

"N-Now what?" Ian asked, leaning forward so as to dissipate some of the tension building in his gut.

"Well…" Rin said, her eyes still not fully coming back around to looking at Ian, "Umm… where did that whipped cream go?"

"It's right here!" Ian spoke quickly, holding the bottle up for his friend. He held it up too quickly and the little canister flew out of his hand— just barely missing Rin's face. She blinked in shock as he crawled to her to make sure she was okay.

She pushed him away, flustered by all the commotion over her welfare. "I'm fine, Ian!"

"I'm so sorry, Rin! I've got such butterfingers…" He ran off to get the can back from the crook of the tree where it had finally rested.

"Ian, you didn't hit me." Rin assured him, patting his arm comfortingly as tears formed in his eyes. She smiled to assure the boy that there was no need to start crying. He wiped at his eyes and forced his lips to part in a smile. "Now back to our treats!"

"Oh, Rin… you still haven't told me what we're making." Ian commented, shyly.

She turned around to look at him, "I'll tell you. It's an American treat my dad told me about called a Fairy Dingle. Here, hold out yours."

Ian looked at her curiously, but held out his stick. She shook the can of cool whip and popped the top off. Pushing the trigger down, she sprayed little, white, fluffy circles in between the chocolate strawberries. Finally she pulled away to admire her work.

"Voilà!" She finally said, satisfied with the dripping mess that Ian held in his hands. She continued on to create whipped cream halos around her strawberries as she spoke, "He went out in July to the United States for this conference and went to a festivity that was going on early in the month. He bought one of these and told me about these all over the phone. He thought it'd make me happy to know, because he knew I would be sure to tell you…

"Do you think fairies would like these, Ian?"

"I don't know," Ian admitted, biting off one of his strawberries, "But if they won't eat them I will."

"Ian… can we go there?" Rin asked, placing the can down on the blanket and holding her fairy dingle between her clasped hands. "Oh, please?"

Ian said nothing, but held the treat firmly in his mouth as he went about placing fallen pine cones around them. He swallowed another strawberry and went back to her. Placing the stick with its contents upon the blanket, he held out sticky palms, "Take my hand."

She gladly placed hers next to him and took his hands. He closed his eyes temporarily and she gasped in shock. She stared around in wonder at the wooden and earthen fairies picking at the chocolate pot. They dipped in their long, thin fingers to scoop up the delicacy and roll it around in their mouths. Some of them stared with eyes glittering like sun upon water at them, others continued about their own lives.

Tears rolled down her cheeks and she smiled brightly, "Ian, this is wonderful. It's, oh, so wonderful!"

He couldn't help but let her smile transcend upon his own features. "My promise is still open. We can go there one day."

"And you know my answer, Ian. I would follow you to the ends of the earth to get there." He felt his stomach stir with the notion and he let the warm feeling wash over him.

"Ian! Ian Hasumi!!"

The image around them broke and shattered like an illusion. Ian looked towards the direction of trampling boots and met the sight of the one person he didn't wish to see right now. He was at the perfect opportunity, the perfect moment in time, and… he saw a flash of green hair. Tokage…

The boy, his other self, floated around the tree and up towards the sky before landing down under the thick trunk. He stuck out his pink tongue and squeezed his eyes shut as he made a face at Ian. Ian felt his heart fall.

"I don't know what possessed you to even think of coming out here after stealing this whipped cream can from the clerk at the grocery store!" Mr. Hasumi brandished the can of cool whip at his son and Ian looked taken back at the accusation.

"No, father, I bought that." He protested, quietly. Ian's father looked unamused with what seemed to him to be another lie. Ian looked shocked at him and was about to protest the disbelieving look when he saw a toothy grin from the corner of his eyes.

"Go home, Rin. Your mother shall be expecting you." Rin's face flushed furiously and she ran away without a second thought. Ian wanted to call after her and tell her something, but nothing came to mind.

A sob broke from his lips when his father roughly grabbed his arm and pulled him towards the way he'd come. "I-I'm sorry, Dad."

"I don't want to hear it, Ian. I should bar you in your room! I'm so tired of having to come home and find that my son has once more tried to flee from me."

"I wasn't…" Ian pulled on his arm in an attempt to break free from his father's iron grasp. He looked towards Tokage, desperately craving help, "I just wanted to hang out with Rin."

"And you have a curfew that you disobeyed." Ian's father picked him up and carried him over his shoulder, where he chose to fall limp with his aching heart. He looked at Tokage and wanted to scream at him, but all he got was silent tears. Tokage stared at him with a sickly, sweet smile, picking at the remains of Rin's chocolate-covered strawberry treat.

Ian buried his head into the back of his father's coat and cried all the way home.


End file.
